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We have reached the mid-way point of the 2012-2013 TV season, as we slide into the holidays and say good-bye to 2012 lets take a peek at what’s on tap for 2013.

Downton Abbey season 3 Sunday at 9 on PBS – Season 3 has already aired on the BBC, if want to know what happens just Google. Shirley MacLaine has joined the cast as Cora Crawley’s mother (Elizabeth McGovern). I guess Shirley and Maggie can try to out insult each other, my money is on Dame Maggie. Matthew (Dan Stevens) and Mary (Michelle Dockery) are finally engaged, will they get married? Word on the street, Dan Steven’s is not returning for Season 4, will they pull a Becky Connor and slip us a new Matthew? The storyline I am most interested in is Bates (Brendan Coyle), will his lady-love Anna (Joanne Froggatt) be able to get him out of jail? Somebody dies in childbirth this season. wonder who?

Bunheads season 2 9pm Monday on ABC Family – I was and still am a devoted Gilmore Girls fan, I had such high hopes for Amy Sherman Palladino‘s new show. I watched all season, there where bright spots, and a lot of Gilmore alumni showing up (we really need Scott Patterson) but nothing could save the show because the lead, Sutton Foster is horrible. Sure, she is a Tony award-winning musical theatre legend, but stage actors don’t always know how to pull it in for the small screen. Lets hope she got some coaching in the off-season. Yes I will be tuning in again, I want to see if it will rebound.

Girls season 2 9pm Sunday on HBO – I don’t why but I like this crazy crew of self-involved hipsters. Will success spoil Girls? Tune into season 2 and find out.

Enlightened season 2 9:30pm Sunday on HBO – It started slow, but with strong performances by Laura Dern and a tight ensemble this show hooked me. I can’t wait to see Amy stick it to the man this season. Revolution!!! And did I mention the addition of the dreamy Dermot Mulruney, mmmmmm hello salty goodness.

House of Lies season 2 10pm Sunday on Showtime – Don Cheadle and his band of merry consultants are back, with a hearty mix of outlandish plot twists and complicated characters Showtime has another winner on its hands.

And finally the 2 shows I am looking most forward to

Suits season 2 10pm Thursday on USA – Some of the best writing on TV, a tight ensemble and a wardrobe to die for this show has it all. Harvey (Gabriel Macht) and Mike (Patrick J. Adams) are back doing what they do best, wining cases with a healthy side dish of snark.

Smash season 2 10pm Monday on NBC – Ok this was the show I loved to criticize, it was such an easy target and I should feel bad for taking advantage, but I don’t. It asked for it, with its ridiculous plots, and one-dimensional characters. If it wasn’t for the incredible talent that is Megan Hilty and the scene stealing womanizing creep Derek, played expertly by Jack Davenport, I wouldn’t have stuck with it. They fired the shows creator, and cut the cast, which all sounded promising until I saw the sneak preview. Too much Katharine McPhee, and even though I love her, Jennifer Hudson is just stunt casting.

Returning Favorites

Fringe will complete it’s series run in early February.

Nashville my official guilty pleasure of new TV season.

Arrow I didn’t think lightning could strike twice but The CW did again with Arrow. Makes me miss Smallville seasons 1-5. Note to the Arrow show runner, stop using the Luthor mansion for the Queen mansion. Did you think we wouldn’t notice?

The aptly titled “Bombshell” was Smash‘s season finale. My big question last night, as it has been all season is, why does everyone think Karen (Katherine McPhee) is soooo talented, when they clearly have a talented Broadway vet waiting right there to take over the role she was born to play. I didn’t think it was possible for a show to jump the shark in 15 episodes or less, but Smash has done it. Kudos it will be your greatest achievement.

Broadway is a business like any other business with millions of dollars at stake, as Eileen reminded us every week this season. There is no way a real producer would risk their money on a hack. I do not understand why the creators/writers think there is drama in the whole “cinderella story”, there isn’t, its boring and watching Derek be led around my his little director is a clche. Although I have seen many an actor or actress get and keep roles because the director wanted to bed them, it would have been nice if the show rose above the fray, Jack Davenport is another actor I hope gets a better gig, he is wasted here.

As the episode opens Derek decides Karen will take over the role of Marilyn for Rebecca Duval, basically they have a day to teach her all the blocking, shorten the costumes etc etc. Ok, wasn’t Karen Rebecca’s understudy, shouldn’t she know all this stuff already and shouldn’t wardrobe have her costumes ready to go for exactly this type of scenario. Really Show, Really?

Anyhow, in one of the rare moments I actually liked Ellis this season, he tells Eileen that Karen sucks and what a bad idea this is, he also lets her know he slipped Becky the nuts. Eileen fires him. I was routing for this all season, and now that he is fired I am not sure I want him gone. But I guess this sets us up for the lawsuit storyline for next season, remember Marilyn was his idea.

Tom and Julia are frantically working on the new closing number, because the original ending, Marilyn’s suicide was such a crowd pleaser. Halfway thru rehearsal Karen loses it and runs off stage, Derek follows her and gives her a pep talk and offers his magic penis to help make her feel better. Let’s see, after he slept with Ivy she crashed and burned on pills and Becky nearly died from peanuts, stay away Karen that penis is cursed.

Michael Swift hits on Julia, his wife has left him and moved to Seattle, she rebuffs and then goes to throw up. Literally she throws up which means she is preggers. Smash has now officially become a soap opera, the whole whose the daddy storyline is so played out and will be again next season.

The show continues destroying the Ivy character, god I hope Megan Hilty gets off this show she is too good for this crapfest. In retaliation for Karen getting Marilyn, she tells Karen she slept with Dev.

finally the show goes on, Karen is awesome ( shows perspective not mine) earning applause mid-song during the new closing number. Meanwhile Ivy is about to swallow a handful of pills.

Pathetic finale. I will tune in next year, I want to see if they have learned their lessons and if a new show runner EP will make that big of difference. But we will have to wait, Smash isn’t back until winter 2013.

What about you, are you coming back? What did you think of the finale? Are you done having the show tell you how awesome Karen is and crapping all over Ivy?

When a corpse is discovered in the woods, the team considers two families involved in a nearly century-long feud; Brennan is apprehensive when her father (Ryan O’Neal) offers to baby-sit for her daughter.

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Wow, Karen has enemies everywhere, Ivy, Rebecca and Ellis. Normally I would feel bad, for the underdog, but not this time. the sooner Kat McPhee is off this show the happier I will be.

What’s that old saying keep your fiends close, keep your understudy closer. Faster than you can say Eve Harrington, as soon as Rebecca finds out that Karen is singing one of her shadow songs, and Derek thinks she is “brilliant” complements of Ellis eavesdropping. Rebecca makes Karen her new BFF. Taking her out to the hottest spot, giving her the opportunity to sing with one of the hottest bands, giving her fabulous designer duds and causing problems between her and Dev.

Unbeknownst to Rebecca Ivy is playing a little prank on Karen. Do you think those two will team up, not likely since Rebecca now sees Ivy is not only more talented than Karen but is also sleeping with Derek. In the previews it looks like Rebecca is making moves on Derek, she is going to stop at nothing to crush her competition. I wasn’t sure about this whole movie star plot, but now that I see how nasty she is I am really liking it.

What else happened last night, oh yes, Leo went missing, he was just hiding out at his friend’s house to get away from this parents and this lame storyline. I really hope they are going to overall Julia’s storyline and character in season 2. I feel so bad for Debra Messing, she so better than this crap. Eileen and Nick go to fancy thing at BAM where they run into Jerry and his arm candy. Eileen and Nick do it. Karen hallucinate some Bollywood musical number crap, if you missed it it’s on YouTube, but remember it’s 5 minutes of your life that you will never get back.

Aside from Rebecca’s scheming, the other highlight of the show was Megan Hilty singing a beautiful ballad called “Secondhand White Baby Grand”, if you can find it on the net watch it. Trust me those are 5 minutes you will not mind giving up.

Three episodes left, and it looks like we will be left with quite a cliffhanger

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Rebecca Duvall (Uma Thurman) “the star” didn’t show up until the last five minuets of the episode which was fine by me. Last night’s episode proved, what we all know is going to happen. Our rag-tag troupe is best when left alone, we don’t need no stinkin’ stars.

Tom (Christian Borle) owned the episode last night, no surprise here, he was nominated for a Tony for his role in Legally Blonde: The Musical and has appeared on Broadway numerous times. Between his musical number and banter with Sam ( his future BF) Christian was pitch perfect, more Tom please.

Ivy, fresh from being fired from Heaven on Earth and Bombshell (formerly Marilyn) is plotting her way back in. She meets the gang for drinks, congratulating Karen on being named Rebecca’s understudy by buying her sunglasses like the ones Marilyn wore in Niagara. She even advises Derek to be nice to Karen, telling him that the directors that got the best performances out of Marilyn were the ones who babyed her. This leads Derek to some weird hallucination, I am not sure where it came from, but Kat McPhee’s Marilyn was spot on during that sequence.

As usual Eileen is trying to raise the money, now that she has Rebecca she has the investor’s, but they have some crazy demands and it totally bums Eileen out. She heads out to her dive bar, has a Martini and tells her bartender boytoy whats up. He offers her money, but its not enough so she hooks him up with some rocker dude who has a ton of cash and doesn’t care about losing it. She fires the old investors, but not Ellis. If I was Anjelica Houston I would tell the producers that is is not believable that her character would have fired him three episodes ago.

Other random happenings, Julia tries to reconcile with her X, she makes her son a grilled cheese sandwich to make amends for ruining his life. I hope that was Jarlsberg from Dean and De Luca and not some Kraft singles processed cheese in that sandwich. Tom and Julia celebrate ten years of working together by going to see a performance of their first big hit, Three on a Match. Debra Messing is the weakest link on this show, her character is the worst. Hopefully this will all change now that Theresa Rebeck is gone, apparently the character was based on her life.

Dev hits Derek for visiting Karen, and then he asks Karen if she would quit the show to go with him if he got a job in another city. We all know Karen picks the show, so say good-bye to Dev. Too bad because he is damn hot with his shirt off. How much longer do we think Derek and Ivy will be together if Karen is single?

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The jokes write themselves folks, really that title. This show is hell on earth.

Everyone is still dealing with the aftermath of the workshop. Ivy and Karen are auditioning, Julia’s marriage is imploding, Tom is dating a republican and Ellis is being Ellis, still plotting.

In the most ridiculous plot point ever, the show is getting Ivy hooked on pills, mmmm didn’t Marilyn have a problem with pills. I swear to god if this season ends with a shot of Ivy passed out naked in her bed and empty pill bottles next to her I am going to break up with this show once and for all.

And in the second most ridiculous plot point of the evening, Karen’s orange juice commercial. What the heck is going on with this show, what does it want to be when it grows up. A show about launching a Broadway musical or a show about the random lives of people who happen to work in and around a broadway musical.

Eileen, Tom, Julia and Derek meet to review a list of possible “stars” for the show, of course Ellis is there (ugh). They fight, and scoff, but Eileen forges on, she thinks a star and a new title will fix everything, she sends Tom and Julia off to make a new one. Derek wants a finished script before he does anymore work, he will then give notes and in a year the show may be ready. Eileen goes director shopping. We all know Derek isn’t going anywhere, lame tension.

Julia’s husband figures out from a piece of sheet music that she had an affair, he is pretty good. He confronts Michael, actually he punches Michael, (thank god someone did). Frank moves out. If I was Debra Messing I would quit this mess, first the lame adoption storyline, now the affair.

Ellis, who we thought was gay, then all of a sudden has a girlfriend has sex with the Rebecca Halls manager (a man) in an attempt to land her for Marilyn. Talk about going above and beyond for your job.

Ok so it wasn’t all bad, I kind of liked Derek and Ivy together, I was kind of surprised they were still together. The other bit of fun was Ivy’s drug/drunk tumble on stage. Of course Karen is there to witness it, when Ivy comes out of the theatre they go at it, screaming at each other, hurling insults, its great.

The next scene with them drinking, dancing and singing in Times Square is absolutely ridiculous. Its only saved because Ivy says. “we’re not best friends now”, which means the bitch fest will continue. Ellis makes his move he and asks Eileen for a co-producing credit simply because he got Rebecca Hall to consider Marilyn, Eileen puts him in his place, again. How many times is she going to smack him down before she fires him.

In the end they get a title “Bombshell” oh god, and the cheesefest continues.

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Alcatraz airs its season, and I would guess its series finale tonight, it did not perform as expected as lost money for the network.

Personally I am really looking forward to Smash and Castle.

Tonight’s episode of Smash is titled “The Coup”, because that is exactly what Derek stages, he takes Karen along with a new song to a new group of investors and tries to get his own show going. This sets the stage for a Derek/Tom showdown, we finally get the details behind their bad blood. Smash has been renewed for Season 2.

CBS is all repeats, ABC also has Dancing With The Stars and NBC has The Voice

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Why is Smash one cliché after another, here are just a few from last night

morning of the workshop music montage

Ivy’s mother is the stage mother from hell singing the theme song from a musical about the ultimate stage mother from hell

Ellis is Eve Harrington

Eileen’s never ending issues with the production, you would have thought someone mentioned the name of that Scottish play

Karen passes up her big meeting with the record producer to perform in the workshop (yeah right)

Ivy’s pill addiction continues

As the title suggests last night’s episode was the big workshop to get the investors. Once of the many problems facing our little acting troupe is the heat in the building is blasting because the boiler is broken. Now call me crazy, but why didn’t they use some of the fans they used to blow up Marilyn’s skirt in the workshop to cool off the audience.

As it turns out no one wants to invest in “Marilyn”, quelle surprise. The team, Tom, Julia, Eileen and Derek regroup to discuss what to do. Derek thinks it was Ivy. Tom thinks it was Michael, Julia agrees and Michael is fired. Eileen suggest they need to hire a “star”, if you have read the press, than you know Uma Thurman has been seen on set, I think she is the big name they bring in. Poor Ivy, I feel so bad for her, couple that with Karen getting the shot with the big record producer, I don’t know if she will go over the edge, but the stage is set.

Karen records a demo for “Mr. Raskin”, the record producer she was referred to after the Bar Mitzvah. I couldn’t decide if the guy who recorded the demo was just a sound engineer or Mr. Raskin. Anyway she sings a cover of Colbie Caillait’s “Brighter Than The Sun”, the engineer/Raskin is blown away. I thought she was the same Katherine McPhee complete with weird arm gestures we see every time she sings. Didn’t Simon Cowell beat that out of her on Idol.

Speaking of Simon, Smash’s very own Simon Cowell, Derek is still trying to get Karen in the lead. He is such a snake and I love it. But, he is a little clueless, he doesn’t pick up on the Julia/Michael thing at all. Which seems very out of character, sloppy writing.

Ivy’s (Megan Hilty) mother a Tony award winning actress name Leigh Conroy comes to town for the workshop, she is played by realife Tony award winning actress Bernadette Peters, and oh man is she good. Granted the character is pure stock, all smiles and charm in public but behind closed doors, she humiliates and insults Ivy constantly. Driving Ivy to take sleeping pills. To make matter’s worse when she attends rehearsal with Ivy she is asked to sing by the cast and she does, of course.

She tries to make things up to her at the end, but you just know she will be back to beat her up so more, that is what an abuser does.

What I found most interesting about the scene was Derek’s reaction, he watched Ivy the whole time, knowing how this performance by her mother was killing her. After he told Ivy how great she is doing with Marilyn. I thought for a moment he was being a human, but then I realized he knew he had to say something to make her feel better to preserve his precious workshop. He is a crafty one.

Julia and Michael continued their affair, until Julia calls it off. After Michael’s wife and kid show up at rehearsal, apparently the guilt she feels over her own son knowing is nothing compared to the guilt she feels when she sees Michael’s son. Good thing the adoption got quashed. In another insult to working woman every where, Julia is so distraught she has to go home. The workshop is tomorrow its crunch time, but she has to go home and cry. Suck it up, you made your bed now lie in it, the show must go on.

As I mentioned up post, Michael is fired, that isn’t going to come back to bite her at all. No not at all. Ellis saw them together and told Eileen. What is up with Ellis when did he become Eileen’s BFF, I am only putting up with this nonsense because I hope he gets his in the end.

Eileen’s bartender came to the rescue with a plumber when the heat in the rehearsal space needed fixing. Is it me or is he going to turn out to have a bunch of money to invest. I bet he is more than a bartender.

Next week Derek takes matters into his own hands in the aptly titled “The Coup”